1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for setting up a communication link from a first to a second telecommunication device via a telecommunication network; it relates in particular to a method wherein data, such as images or tones, of the user of the first telecommunication device is displayed or, as the case may be, played during call signaling at the second telecommunication device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Increasing significance attaches to interpersonal communication by telephony, in particular mobile telephony, with its being important for a telecommunication user particularly while a telephone connection is being set up to know the caller's identity before answering or, as the case may be, accepting the call. The called communication user can for this purpose use various devices for displaying the caller's identity in the form of, for example, that party's name and telephone number. With a first technique, a database in which are stored telephone numbers and associated names, but also an image associated with the name, is provided in the called telecommunication user's telecommunication device. On a call during which the caller's directory number is usually transmitted, the called party's telecommunication device can thus determine the associated name and image of the caller in the database and display that party's image alongside the telephone number and name.
A disadvantage of the method according to the first technique is that the caller is unable himself/herself to influence the image that is stored in the call recipient's telecommunication device and displayed. The display settings and image selecting are here under the call recipient's control; the caller cannot enforce displaying of a particular image or update the displayed image, nor can he/she send the call recipient a recent image.
To resolve the problem so that a caller has control over the image displayed or, as the case may be, requiring to be displayed to the call recipient during call signaling, a second technique also allows the caller to send the image to be displayed to the call recipient from his/her telecommunication device to a telecommunication network that switches the communication link (telephone connection), with the telecommunication network then sending the image to the call recipient's telecommunication device while a call is being signaled. The caller can in this way himself/herself select the image that is to appear to the call recipient. Those for whom this possibility is of particular interest include companies, their being enabled thereby to have their logo displayed to the called user or, as the case may be, call recipient while a connection is being set up. What, however, proves disadvantageous about the method according to the second technique is that each time a connection is set up the caller first has to send an image to a telecommunication network for forwarding to the call recipient's telecommunication device. That places a heavy load on the air interface particularly in the case of a telecommunication device embodied as a mobile telephone and a telecommunication network embodied as a mobile radio network.